The present invention relates to railway couplers, and more particularly to a railway coupler having a shelf with chamfered side edges.
Both Type E and Type F railway couplers are known to have lower support shelves. Further, double shelf type E and F couplers are known with both an upper and a lower support shelf. One purpose of such support shelves is to assist in limiting relative vertical motion between couplers. Another purpose, as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,145, is to support a mating coupler in the event it is pulled out of engagement with its supporting railway vehicle.
As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,219, an angled leading edge of the top shelf of an E Type coupler is known to prevent shelf to shelf load transfer under a droop coupler condition.
One problem with couplers having known support shelves and auxiliary support lugs has been a tendency for shelf overlap, and, especially in the case of relative slight coupler rotation, the contact or overlap of top and bottom shelves. Such shelf contact or overlap usually requires a combination of coupler droop and contour wear with resulting severe vertical coupler angling. In fact, a loss of rail contact due to the lifting of one coupler is an actual consideration. Such loss of rail contact is a serious enough problem to consider modification to coupler design.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved railway coupler that will lessen the potential for shelf overlap and the lifting of coupler-car trucks from track contact during such shelf overlap.